Those Lazy Afternoons
by May Vulcan
Summary: "I doubt we can be together forever… but isn't that what growing up's all about? What's important isn't how often we see each other, but how often we think about each other…"
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER:** Though I find this completely unnecessary, I feel somewhat obligated to state that the Kingdom Hearts franchise and the poem "Those Lazy Afternoons" do not belong to me. Also, as you read the story, keep in mind that this is simply a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of their rightful owner's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

* * *

Those Lazy Afternoons

_Reminiscing on old times_

The yard behind old abandoned mansion was the perfect place for reenacting battles of war. The tall, dead grass, the fallen tree, and the mucky, old creek gave the field an original atmosphere that only Olette's boys would love.

Christian Hayner Richardson put his slender piano fingers onto his earpiece. "Heartless Nobody, do you read me?" the blond-haired teenager whispered stealthily into the microphone. "This is your captain speaking. Over."

Less than five yards away, Jonathan Roxas Way crouched down behind the fallen tree. He carefully examined his surroundings before responding to his friend on the other line.

"I read you loud and clear," the boy with the windswept hair commented as he readjusted his goggles. "Target sighted. Over."

Hayner grinned at his friend's detection skills. "Perfect. Pencil Case, are you sleeping again?"

"Negative, Boy Blunder," Pence Nicholas Aarons spoke softly into his headset, "I'm trying to find the target's twenty, which is oddly enough right in front of me. Let's move! Over."

Only a few yards away from the fallen tree, Hayner smirked as he watched the brownish-yellow grass rustle. His two teammates were just beyond the grass, locating one of their easiest targets.

"Boy Blunder, I'm starting to get impatient," Roxas whined, ready to pounce on their prey before the excitement wore off. "Can we please go now-?"

"Wait for _my _command, soldier!" Hayner hissed forcefully. "The target's surrounded. Ready… steady… NOW! Attack!"

At this point, Hayner, Roxas and Pence jumped out from their positions and shot at Olette with their loaded Nerf guns. Foam darts flew all over the place; some narrowly missing the brunette teenager while others directly hit her.

"This really isn't fair," Olette Maureen Anderson complained, attempting to shield herself with the Nerf gun she was using. "It's three against one, boys!"

Pence quickly reloaded with the foam darts surrounding him. "You're the one who picked that gun. It's only fair!"

"How on Earth is _this_ fair?" Olette shouted, rushed for shelter from the oncoming darts. "Altogether the three of you have more darts than I do!"

"But with your choice of weaponry," Roxas explained, still trying to aim for the girl dressed in orange, "it _is _only fair. That gun fires the most amount of darts in the quickest amount of time!"

The four friends did their best to avoid getting hit by the zooming darts. It was no longer the predictable underhanded game of three-against-one; it was now a free-for-all. Darts flew from one end of the field to the other. Hayner shot darts at Roxas and Olette while Pence crawled along the creek collecting the fallen darts.

Hayner shot a dart toward Olette, only to realize – "Olette, look out!" he warned loudly, racing to his best girl friend.

Turning her attention to the leader of the gang, Olette noticed the blond boy coming at her with full force. A dart skimmed directly past Olette's face as she was taken in her best friend's arms and pushed to the dirt below. The brunette and the blond had fallen into the mucky stream. With her backside covered entirely in mud, Olette screamed, "CHRISTIAN HAYNER RICHARDSON!"

* * *

"No need to yell," the fifteen-year-old boy said smoothly as he slipped in front of the Way's hallway mirror. "I'm right here, Roxas."

Pence rolled his eyes, readjusting his black bowtie and straightening out his suit. "Someone's a little too excited about Homecoming, isn't he?" the raven-haired boy teased his friend. "Could it be because of who his date is?"

Smirking, Roxas nudged the heavyset boy beside him. "Obviously, he's more than just 'too excited' considering the fact that Olette signed him up for coatroom duty with her," the blue-eyed teenager played along, hastily trying to tie his necktie.

A burst of hysterical laughter filled the hallway. The two friends received a death glare from their leader; however, the dynamic duo appeared unmoved by their best friend's seemingly angered stare.

"Why exactly would I be excited about _that_?" Hayner questioned, fidgeting with stray ends of his spiky blond hair. "I'm going to be stuck in a dark, stuffy, smelly coatroom all night… just putting away people's stuff."

After another fit of laugher from the duo, Pence reasoned, "Why, elementary, my dear Richardson! Olette's working the same shift with you…"

"… meaning," Roxas continued, "that the two of you will be in that coatroom for the _entire_ night…"

"… alone," the two chuckled in unison.

Hayner rolled his brown eyes for the umpteenth time that night. "Olette is not that type of girl, idiots," he reminded his two friends who were still howling with laughter.

* * *

"To _hell_ with the type of girl I am!" Olette roared as her best friends watched her in silence. "Just because I'm usually this overachieving, goody-two-shoes girl that people can walk all over doesn't mean that I can't lose it now and then!"

Hayner stared at the fuming girl with a smirk; she had finally snapped. He knew that the all-mighty Olette Maureen Anderson would break eventually, but he figured it would be his own fault – not someone else's. Leaning beside the dartboard, the blond leader folded his arms across his chest as his best girl friend continued to lose control.

"Is everything okay?" Pence wondered as Olette violently rummaged through her backpack. "We were fine the last time we saw you… did something happen?"

Olette glared at Pence. "'Did something happen?'!" she repeated furiously. "'_Did something happen?'_! What in the _fucking hell_ do you think? Of course, something fucking happened!"

Pence stared wide-eyed at the girl beside him on the couch. He could see both Hayner and Roxas hold in their laughter as Olette continued to vent about what happened during her time at the ASB workday.

"Like she fucking knows what to fucking do!" Olette said angrily. "If she knew how to fucking do it, I don't think I would be doing her fucking job."

The boys tried their best to stay silent during Olette's rant. After having been yelled at by Olette, Pence nodded politely, expressing to the girl that he understood a good amount of her anger; however, Hayner and Roxas were sitting on the opposite end of the room, both of them trying to contain themselves.

"Wow…" Roxas said, breaking the silence between the four friends. "All that happened at the workday today?"

Finally managing to calm herself down, Olette nodded. "And Mr. Boehm wasn't there to see Belinda… I'm sure if he was, he'd actually understand where the rest of the sophomore class is coming from."

Roxas pondered about Olette's statement for only a moment before responding. "I don't know what's more surprising: the fact that Belinda stayed as long as you did for a workday or the fact that the word 'fucking' is even in your vocabulary, Olette."

"_Fuck you_, Roxas," Olette hissed.

* * *

"Why would you say something like that?" Roxas feigned sadness from Olette's accusation. "I would _never _dream of pranking you."

Pulling her hand away from doorknob, Olette raised an eyebrow at Roxas's statement. She cocked her head slightly to the side as she spoke to her friend. "I didn't say anything about pranks; I said you better not waste my time because I have an ASB function to go to…"

Mentally slapping himself, Roxas continued to smile at the girl he saw as the older sister he never had. He shook his head as if telling Olette to forget about his comment, pushing her toward the garage door.

Against her will, Olette forced the garage door open. With her eyes still on Roxas, the brunette failed to see the three balloons full of paint flying in her direction. An ear-shattering scream was released from her lips as the balloons exploded on her workday clothes, drenching her in all the primary colors.

"_You_!" Olette sneered as she turned to face Roxas. "You set this up! You _knew_ about this and you forced me to walk through that door!"

Laughing hysterically, Roxas replied, "I told you I would never dream of pranking you!"

Now completely covered in paint, the green-eyed girl looked at the small catapult before her. She knew that, regardless of how smart Roxas was, he was never patience enough to craft such a device on his own. Olette watched as the red paint and the blue plant mixed to create a mysterious violet. And then it clicked; she only knew one person with accessible paints.

"_Pence!_"

* * *

"I'm okay!" Pence said with a laugh as he helped Olette up from the ground.

In a rush to get from one place to another, Hayner and Olette had collided attempting to get through the door of the ASB room. Olette was originally trying to get to Hayner to tell him about the results of ASB elections. Hayner, too, was trying to get to Olette to let her know about the results.

Olette groaned. "Good for you," she murmured. "Hayner, are you okay?"

Hayner, with Roxas's help, stood up and remarked, "Olette, that is one hard head you've got there!"

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Like yours is any softer!"

_Remember how we'd play_

It was pitch-black and cold in Roxas's garage. Numerous pots and pans stacked upon each other filled one corner of the room while the dusty, unused treadmill sat folded away in another corner. Unfolded boxes and untouched rope lay on the concrete ground as Hayner quickly and as quietly as possible jumped on top of the long chest freezer. Pence carefully place himself behind the old, dried out aquarium. Roxas, however, was trying a different approach to their little game.

"Marco?" the blindfolded brunette called out as she tried to feel what might be in front of her. "Guys, can I take off the blindfold please? It's too dark for me to see anything in here anyways; it wouldn't change anything…"

"Incoming!" Roxas cried from the top of the broken washing machine.

Olette stayed in place, trying to decipher Roxas's call. "What does that even mean-?"

Just then, a buck filled with lavender-scented liquid soap came spiraling down directly on Olette's head. The viscous, soapy liquid trickled from her head all the way down to her neck.

While attempting to free herself from the bucket, the boys began to cackle. Hayner sprawled himself across the freezer lid as Pence lay beside the aquarium; both boys kept their eyes on Olette as she struggled with the bucket.

"JONATHAN ROXAS WAY!" the brunette shrieked as she got her head out of the plastic pail. She threw it to her left, hitting Hayner with the bucket in the process. Ripping the blindfold off, Olette darted toward Roxas.

Almost instantaneously, Roxas dashed out of his garage using the side door. With Olette following him, the blond-haired thirteen-year-old boy rushed to the only grassy lot within the neighborhood. He stopped only to breathe, but was tackled straightaway by his lavender-scented, soap-drenched, vexed friend.

_Or lie in the grass_

"That one looks like a puppy!" Hayner exclaimed as he rested his head on the dirt beneath him. "Ooh! And that one's like a little piggy!"

The summer sun shone very brightly in Twilight Town on that summer afternoon as the quartet of misfits started up at the clouds above them. They lie side by side: Hayner next to Roxas; Roxas next to Olette; and Olette next to Pence – the usual afternoon lineup.

It was quite obvious that the four friends were up to their usual "do-nothing day" as Hayner pointed up at the hovering clouds.

Finishing off the last of his sea salt ice cream, Pence chuckled softly to himself.

"What?" Hayner said, lifting his head to look at Pence.

"Olette's like a little piggy," Pence said in a feigned whisper, not minding the fact he was lying beside the preteen girl of whom he spoke.

Previously having shut her eyes to enjoy their casual day together, Olette quickly opened her eyes and shot up from her relaxed state. She shot an icy death glare toward her close friend as he continued to look at her as innocently as possible.

"No, no, no!" he proclaimed. "I wasn't talking about you! I was talking about Hayner's cloud; I named it Olette! And I agree with him! I think it's like a little piggy!"

Roxas tried to control his fits of laughter as Hayner smirked. The two of them watched as Olette and Pence went on with their habitual battle of wits – a battle that Pence always won.

_Dream all day_

Pence's bedroom was one of the best places to be during the rough winter nights of December and January. It was only during the months of the summertime when the quartet would lock themselves away from the unbearable heat from which even the Usual Spot could not shield them.

"Are you guys thirsty?" Pence asked his visitors as he stood up from his bed and walked over to the closed door.

"I could go for some of that juice that you messed up Hayner's jacket with that one day in the seventh grade," Roxas joked, spamming buttons on the game controller. "Oh my freaking gosh! WHAT EVEN IS THIS! DIE MONSTER!"

"What are you talking about, Roxas?" Olette wondered. "You're playing a cooking game; there are no monsters…"

Hayner shrugged at Olette's comment. "I don't know about you, Olette," Hayner said. "_Cooking Mama _becomes are really scary game when you screw up part of the recipe. And like, seriously? Have you ever messed up the recipe… at night?"

Pence laughed. "You know that you guys don't have to play that, right? I have more games in my closet and some under the bed. Feel free to-."

Before Pence could finish his statement, Roxas and Hayner were rummaging through his closet for more games.

"But seriously," Pence went on as his younger brother, Adrian, swiveled around in the computer chair. "Water? Juice? Soda? Tea?"

"I'll have what Roxas is having," Hayner said with a laugh as he recalled the juice incident only four years ago. "Even if that stuff ruined my favorite jacket, I gotta admit it's pretty good."

"I'll just have a water," Olette said, curling into a ball on the top bunk.

Pence nodded as he opened the door swiftly. "Adrian, my servant boy! Fetch these people some water and juice boxes-."

"NO-!"

"_Now_!" Pence demanded, pointing out the door.

With that, Pence's younger brother quickly shot up from his seat and raced downstairs to get drinks for the three guests. Pence smirked as his brother grumbled past him.

"Why are you so mean to him?" Olette asked as she moved to sit on the ladder of the bunk bed. "He's such an adorable little boy."

Pence raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "Your youngest brother is an adorable little boy. Adrian? Yeah, no – that little boy is more trouble than he's worth."

"Besides," Hayner explained as Roxas began playing a new video game, "I think it's only natural for older siblings to be that way with their younger ones. I mean Aelita and I used to constantly fight when we were younger and look at us now."

Olette chuckled as she watched Roxas play the newly inserted video game. "I suppose you're right, Hayner. I mean, even Tommy and I don't fight as much anymore."

Rolling his eyes, Roxas roughly tossed the game controller at Hayner.

"What the heck was that for?" Hayner asked. "The game can't possibly be too much for you to handle. Geez, who stuck a Struggle bat up your-?

"At least the three of you have siblings," Roxas complained. "I'm the only child and honestly with how my family is, there's no possible way for me to have a brother or sister that isn't adopted or my half-sibling."

Olette and Pence watched as Roxas tried to shrug off his last comment as a joke.

"Roxas," the two of them began, "what-?"

"It's okay, you two," Roxas laughed. "I was just being a downer. It's just sometimes I wish that I wasn't the only child. Ya'know something, guys? When I grow up, I'll make sure that I have at least two kids."

Smiling, Olette shook her head; it was very much like Roxas to say something to distract from his depressing comments. "Oh, really?" she pressed the matter. "How exactly is that going to work?"

"I almost forgot!" Roxas teased. "Innocent Olette still hasn't taken health class! You see, little one, when a man and a woman-."

The brunette grabbed the nearest plush toy from Adrian's bed and flung it forcefully at Roxas. "That is _not _was I meant, dummy! And that is so not true; I've taken _some _health-."

"The hour-long video they make you watch in elementary school that talks about puberty and whatnot hardly counts!" Pence remarked as Adrian rushed up the stairs with the drinks

"Exactly!" Roxas said, grabbing the juice box from Adrian. "And if that's not what you meant, then what did you mean?"

As Hayner quickly opened his juice box, Olette rolled her eyes at Roxas. "How exactly do you intend to live this wonderful life as a father if you've so boldly proclaimed that you want nothing to do with children and the burdens of parenthood?"

Eying his friends carefully, Roxas saw as each of their faces lit up with the memory of what Olette had mentioned. "I guess you could say," he stated, "that I've had a change of heart in the past few years of this friendship. I mean honestly… do you really think that the dreams we once had are the same as those of now?"

Pence, sitting on the floor beside his dresser, looked up at Hayner, Olette, and Roxas. "I… never thought of that."

Hayner shrugged as he passed the controller to Pence. "As much as I love Twilight Town, I just want to get the heck out of this boring hellhole. The sooner I graduate, the better."

"Assuming you _can _graduate," Roxas laughed, receiving a pillow in the face from both Olette and Hayner.

"What about you, Olette?" Pence wondered. "You're a natural dreamer out of all of us. Are your dreams any different from before?"

"I really don't know," Olette said, still sitting on the ladder. "I guess… I don't know. I was really sorta hoping that after our senior year the four of us could travel to see the worlds… instead of finishing my studies the moment-."

"You're willing to decline the scholarship to the RGPI?" Hayner wondered as excitement and joy filled his brown eyes. "_For us_?"

"… I would just be holding them off," Olette minded. "The Radiant Garden Private Institute is the school of my dreams, Hayner… you know that."

"Oh," Hayner said, mentally slapping himself. "What about you, Roxas? You're the one who sparked this conversation topic. What exactly changed for you?"

Roxas had been daydreaming about his future when Hayner asked him the question. Snapping back to reality, Roxas shook his head and looked toward Hayner, who sat at the other end of Pence's bed.

"Hmm…?" Roxas sounded as Pence turned off the game system to fully engage in the conversation.

"You sparked this topic," Hayner reminded. "What changed your mind about being Twilight Town's playboy?"

Roxas looked at the bunk bed ladder; Olette's sock-covered feet dangled from Adrian's bed, swinging back and forth as much as they could. He knew that the girl was daydreaming, just as he had been only moments before. Then, Roxas turned his head to face Pence, who was paying very close attention to him; after knowing each other since the first grade, Roxas was well aware that Pence would want to know what was going on in his life. Finally, Roxas sighed.

"A lot's changed," the boy with the blue eyes said gently, thinking about the future once more. "Things really have changed since we were in the seventh grade. I mean, we're juniors next year. Of course, my dreams aren't what they used to be."

"And why would that be?" Pence wondered.

"Well, I can honestly say that things have just _changed_," Roxas said.

"You certainly aren't acting like the ladies' man you were at the beginning of this year," Olette noted. "And I must say that I'm impressed."

Roxas rolled his eyes, poking Olette's right foot. "Shut up! Besides, I stopped that stuff after Naminé. No, wait! I think it was the Rachel one…? I dunno. Either way, from now on, the only girl I intend to impress is the one that doesn't see me the way everyone else does. I'll find a girl who sees me as more than a senseless, incompetent nobody. If I find her… _when _I find her, I know things will be all right.

* * *

**Author's Note:** This chapter of the story was rewritten on _October 6, 2013_ and republished on _October 15, 2013_.

I realize that I have been hiatus for an extensive time and I would very much like to apologize for that. I cannot actually recall the last time I worked on a story – whether it be to publish it or reedit it. I won't go on to bore you with my excuses of how senior year was a terrible year or how it was even a busy one, but I will repeat this: I am extremely sorry. With my somewhat freer schedule, I think I'll be able to post stories from time to time.

- May


	2. Chapter 2

_Remember those warm summers_

The annual Struggle Tournament was the most anticipated event of the summer. Every year numbers upon numbers of people would sign up to try their luck against some of the best Strugglers in town. Sometimes, people from other worlds would come to see the long-awaited event. This summer, the summer between the quartet's freshman and sophomore year, was one of those years where people from all worlds came to Twilight Town to watch the Struggle battles.

"You and Roxas are signing up this year, right?" Olette asked as she and Hayner stood in front of the flyer announcing the event.

"Wouldn't be a usual summer if we didn't, now would it?" Hayner wondered with a teasing smile.

Olette smiled in return as Roxas and Pence stopped in front of the flyer.

"It's that time of the year again?" Roxas wondered. "We're signing up, right? Man, I cannot remember a summer when you and I haven't signed up for this thing!"

Hayner laughed, putting his arms around Roxas and Pence. "Neither can I, but this year's gonna be different."

"Because this year," Pence interjected, "one of you is going to win!"

"And when one of us does," Roxas said, beginning to remember a time from last month, "we'll spilt the prize!"

Pence burst into laughter as he and Roxas pushed away from Hayner; the two of them recalled the same memory. "You mean like the time the four of us signed up for the cakewalk last month at the church festival?"

"We _so _would have won that, too!" Olette remarked, glancing at Hayner. "Ya'know, if _someone _hadn't given away that we all knew each other!"

Hayner quickly looked away from the gang,whistling an innocent tune. "I wonder who on earth that could be?" the spiky-haired boy asked his friends with an innocent smile. When his friends shot him a look of mock anger, he quickly stated, "Olette and I go to that church all the time and Roxas's grandparents sing for the choir there… someone was bound to know that we knew each other."

"And that matters because…?" Roxas asked. "Pence won."

"Well…? I dunno." Hayner groaned.

"What part of '_act like we've never met'_ did you not seem to understand?" Olette wondered.

Shrugging, Hayner murmured a simple reply. "The acting part…"

"Well, obviously!" the other three guffawed at their leader.

_Where we were all together_

"If you can't take the heat," Olette said to her whining friends, "then let's go to the kitchen."

Olette kitchen was always a fun place to be when there was really nothing else to do. When the group was hungry enough, Olette and Roxas would turn up the heat and gather ingredients, boil water and experimenting with the food. During times like this, Hayner would prop open his laptop, looking up simple recipes that were easy enough for the group to complete together while Pence would rummage through the Andersons' food cabinet to see what flare he could add to spice of the dish.

"What are you guys craving?" Hayner asked, plugging his laptop charger into the outlet beside the phone. "I kinda want some of the Oreos that we made for the ASB function I crashed – ya'know, the ones we always make."

"Yeah, but we _always _make those," Pence grumbled. "I really want to try the sea-salt ice cream that Olette and Roxas made for their English project last year."

"Dude," Roxas said, eying Pence curiously, "you're lactose intolerant."

"What's your point?" Pence argued. "That never stops me."

"Yeah, but consider the fact that Roxas and I always tend to screw up more than we should," Olette pointed out. "Besides, the ones that Aelita brings from the Java Juice are the best."

"So… deep-fried Oreos it is?" Hayner asked excitedly as he shut his laptop.

"You've got some Nutella in the cabinet," Pence said to Olette. "It expires in like two days and there's still like more than half in here."

"Deep-fried Oreos with a Nutella twist?" Roxas wondered. "That sounds pretty bomb to me."

Too lazy to walk around the kitchen counter to get to his friends, Hayner crawled over the top. Sitting at the edge of the island, Hayner looked at Roxas who was fishing through the refrigerator for ingredients.

"Hayner!" Olette shouted at her best friend. "We prepare our food on that; I use it as a table sometimes!"

Pence laughed, "Yeah, Hayner! Countertops are for glasses, not asses."

Roxas, having missed the entire exchange between his friends, closed the refrigerator door. He held three raw eggs in his left hand as he made his way to the gang.

"What did you do _this _time?" Roxas asked, gesturing his hands while he spoke.

Not having the best grip of the eggs, Roxas accidentally let them go; all three breaking on Hayner's face.

"ROXAS!" Hayner shouted, jumping off the counter and chasing Roxas around the room.

_No cares in the world_

The summer between their freshman and sophomore year was the first year the quartet was assigned work over the summer. Roxas and Hayner had the same amount of work from their regular classes. Pence's workload was double that amount, considering the fact that Pence signed up for only one AP class. Being her predictable self, Olette signed up for the two AP classes Twilight Town High had to offer sophomores. The only class the four friends anticipated on having together was English 2 Honors.

"Boys," Olette breathed as she struggled to drag her book bag into the Usual Spot, "could I get a _little _help here?"

Pence, Hayner and Roxas sat around the center of the Usual Spot, playing a game of _Clue_. At the sound of their best girl friend's pleas, they immediately looked up from the game board and raced to her side. Pence took Olette's heavy book bag and carried it over to the lumpy, yet comfortable, couch. Hayner gabbed the books Olette was carrying and tossed them carelessly on the floor beside the couch. As Olette slowly stretched out herself, Roxas jumped on her back with a playful grin.

"Go forth, my trusty steed!" Roxas remarked. "Away to my fair maiden-!"

"Get off me!" Olette demanded as she nudged her elbow back, knocking Roxas to the floor. "It's been a long last day of school and we still have a summer project to complete."

As Roxas got to his feet, the trio of boys groaned at Olette's comment.

"We have _three months _to finish those assignments," Hayner reminded Olette as he, Roxas and Pence continued with their game. "It's not even the first day of the summer break and you want to start homework _now_? C'mon, Olette! _Geez!_"

Marching over to Hayner, Olette yelled, "_Excuse me_? Are you suggesting that we hold off our work until the very last minute? Hayner, the last time you did that, I have to save your butt!"

"No," Hayner replied, moving his game piece, "I'm just suggesting that we do it _later_. Summer vacation _just _started three hours ago and you already want to start doing work! Are you insane?"

Pence laughed. "Well, when have you ever known Olette to _hold off _on assignments?"

Shrugging, Roxas replied, "Well, when have you ever known Hayner to _want _to do them?"

_Just us four in the warm weather_

Sometimes the Twilight Town summer heat was much too unbearable for any place to shield. The Usual Spot was an oven while Pence's room could only mask the heat temporarily before the heat began to get to them. The heat from Olette's kitchen would eventually get to them as well. However, when all else failed, the pool in Olette's backyard was always nice.

"Cannonball!" Roxas shouted as he and Hayner jumped into the deep end of the pool. "Woo!"

"Olette, why didn't you ever tell us that you had a pool in your backyard?" Pence asked as he and Olette sat together at the edge of the shallow end.

"You never asked…?" Olette laughed as Hayner and Roxas swam towards her and Pence.

"Well, you never mentioned it!" Roxas remarked. "How were we supposed to know? And we've only been in _some _parts of your house. You can't expect us to know everything about it."

Hayner pushed himself out of the pool and slowly sat down in the connected hot tub. He motioned for his friends to follow. As they sat down around him, the blond-haired boy smiled. "Isn't this nice?" he said.

"What?" Pence wondered.

"Just being here," he replied, "together."

* * *

**Author's Note:** This chapter of the story was rewritten on _October 8, 2013_ and republished on _October 15, 2013._

Again, I would very much like to apologize to anyone who tracks my other stories. My hiatus was seemingly endless – until now. However, as I said before, I am working on finish the other stories as well we reediting the ones that are complete. After completing the editing of this story, my priority will lie with whichever story you guys demand I complete; I'll let you guys decide on that one. Just leave a review in the story that you think needs the most of my attention. Thanks again for reading!

- May


	3. Chapter 3

_Remember just talking everyday_

The Richardson household constantly received a number of phone calls throughout the day. Many of them were for Mrs. Richardson, due to her excessive workload. On the off-chance that the phone was not for Mrs. Richardson, the phone call would be a telemarketer or one of Mr. Richardson's co-workers. Every now and then, Aelita would be on the other end of the line, calling to let her family know where she was. Rarely, however, was the phone for Christian Hayner Richardson, the family black sheep.

_Ring! Ring!_

Aelita Mae made her way over to the kitchen, where the nearest phone hung next to the refrigerator. She picked it up as her mother glanced at her carefully; the last thing Mrs. Richardson wanted was to unintentionally sign herself up for more work again.

"Hello," Aelita answered, forgetting to check the caller identification. "Good afternoon. You've reached the Richardson residence. This is Aelita Mae speaking."

"Hi," a soft, meek voice responded. "Is Hayner home? This is Olette Maureen Anderson; I'm a friend from school-."

The corners of Aelita's mouth twitched slightly as Olette's name. Hayner's older sister turned to face their living room, also known as Hayner's bedroom. "Hayner!" Aelita called for her younger brother. "Your _girlfriend _is on the phone."

Hayner raced out from the living room and rushed into the kitchen. "Aelita!" he grumbled. "She is _not _my girlfriend! Gimme the phone!"

Aelita giggled as she tossed her brother the wireless phone.

"Olette?" Hayner said bewildered.

Olette chimed, "Hello, Hayner!"

"HIYA HAYNER!" Roxas and Pence shouted happily on the other line.

"Are you guys all at Olette's house?" Hayner wondered, a little offended. He and Olette had talked on the phone for hours every day and not once had she mentioned hanging out at her house.

"Nope," Pence replied. "We just found out how to make a four-way call."

"It's like telephone sex!" Roxas blurted out from his line.

"What the heck?" Hayner, Olette, and Pence laughed.

_At our own "Usual Spot"_

The summer sunlight poured into the Usual Spot like water into an empty glass. The light touched nearly every corner of the room as the four friends sat around their cleverly crafted sanctuary, talking about their plans for the summer.

"Well, my sixteenth birthday's coming up," Roxas reminded quietly, "in like four days."

Hayner rolled his eyes. "You act like we'd forget your birthday, dumbass!"

Olette gave the brown-eyed blond a look of disapproval. "_Hayner_!" she scolded.

"What?" Hayner defended. "Roxas's birthday is literally the first day of summer! Do you really think that I'm going to forget something like that, Olette?"

Roxas laughed as Pence replied, "Yeah, Roxas was born on the summer solstice-."

"-which I find is a complete coincidence," Roxas stated.

"How exactly is your birthday a coincidence to anything?" Olette asked.

"Because," Roxas reasoned, "Hayner's birthday is on the winter solstice!"

"Nice!" Hayner said, high-fiving Roxas.

"Oh, you two," Olette said with a smile. "It looks like you forgot Hayner's birthday, Roxas."

"Wait, what?" Roxas wondered. "Isn't it on the winter solstice?"

"December twenty-second, right?" Hayner asked.

Olette shook her head. "I think the winter solstice is on the twenty-first."

"Same difference!" Roxas and Hayner remarked.

"So… wait," Pence said, "are we invited to your party or not?"

_How we'd eat ice cream_

The freezer in the Richardson kitchen was always filled with sea salt ice cream; Aelita worked a second job at the Java Juice and when she closed the shop, she would take the leftover ice cream that no one purchased.

"Eat up, guys," Aelita laughed, placing four bowls of sea salt ice cream on the coffee table as her brother set up the video game console. "There's plenty left if you still want more afterwards."

"Thank you, Aelita!" Olette said with a smile.

"No problem, girl," Aelita replied happily. "Anything for Hayner and his friends."

"Do you want to hang out with us?" Pence and Roxas wondered.

Aelita smiled at the offer before responding. "Nah," she said, "I have work in thirty minutes. Besides, I wouldn't want to take away the magic from a Golden Quartet bond day. Have fun, guys! Enjoy the ice cream!"

_To cool down from the hot_

"Make. The heat. _Stop_!" Roxas complained as he weakly crawled to Pence.

"Like I can control the weather…" Pence griped, pushing Roxas off his leg roughly. "Stop being so overdramatic!"

Rubbing his temples, Hayner grit his teeth impatiently. "_Shut the fuck up_! You two have complained about the heat nonstop since we got here! Either you fix the air conditioning in the Usual Spot yourselves _or _you grin and bear it!"

The summer heat was really getting to their heads. The air conditioning in the Usual Spot needed repairing. Roxas's house was being fumigated. Hayner's house was being remodeled. Pence's bedroom was being repainted from their last scheme. Olette's pool was being cleaned. The boys were now sitting in Olette's garage as the summer heat rose along with their tempers.

"Guys!" Olette called cheerily from outside.

Shutting his eyes tightly, Hayner yelled back, "WHAT?"

"I need your help!" Olette exclaimed.

"C'mon," Hayner ordered Pence and Roxas. "Olette rarely asks for help. This is probably one of those time where she really needs it."

The boys stepped out of the garage through the side door when- _SPLAT!_

Giving the throw all her might, Olette aimed the water balloon at Pence. Unfortunately, Olette was never gifted with aiming accuracy, so she missed Pence and hit Hayner directly in the face.

"Olette!" Hayner shouted as the cold water dripped from his face on his shirt.

* * *

**Author's Note**: This chapter of the story was rewritten on _October 8, 2013_ and was republished on _October 15, 2013._

Never have I ever stayed in the Student Rec Center to write a story. In fact, I never go in here at all The only reason I'm in here now is because it is pouring rain outside and I do not want to add water damage to the list of things wrong with my MacBook. It's loud here and it's very distracting. There are numbers of people who pass by trying to steal at glance at what I'm typing and there are even more people who try to sit down and converse with me about the weather. But I think I like writing here because it's a lot better than being stuck in the heat and struggling to see what's on my screen. Anyways, I hope your enjoyed this chapter of the story. Also, I hope you're enjoying the poem that's attached to it. Leave a review and feel free to check out my other _Kingdom Hearts _stories about Roxas and the gang.

- May


	4. Chapter 4

_Remember trying to go to the beach_

The sun was shining beautifully outside against the tan-colored buildings of Twilight Town. It was not too hot out and the summer breeze was just right. Opening the window of the guest bedroom to get a better look of the outside world, Roxas grown loudly to himself; while the rest of the world was enjoying their beautiful summer day, he was stuck inside the house with his mother and his grandparents.

"Psst!" a voice from outside hollered. "Roxas, we're down here!"

Pence stood in the middle of the street, making his way to Roxas's driveway. Olette and Hayner followed close behind.

"Pence?" the blond-haired boy with the checkered wristband said, turning back to look out the window. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"We're supposed to go to the beach today," Pence reminded.

Olette looked up at the window to see her friend sitting alone miserably at the windowsill. "But you're grounded," she said, "and it wouldn't be right to go without you."

"Yeah," Hayner admitted. "Without you, it's just Olette nagging the hell out of me and Pence about how we haven't finished out summer projects or whatever yet."

Olette's eyes widened as she turned to face Hayner. "What?" she yelled. "You _told _me that you _finished _that _weeks _ago!"

Roxas looked down from the guest bedroom window with a smile; though he could barely focus on the words Olette was screaming at Hayner just a floor below, it was always hilarious to see Hayner attempt to smooth talk his way out of the predicaments that he created on his own.

_No matter how hard we tried_

Finishing the last of his sea salt ice cream, Pence propped his feet lazily on Hayner's coffee table, following suit with the other boys. He sighed loudly, taking a mental photograph of the image before him. As usual, Olette was seated nearest Hayner as the studious brunette slaved away with the ASB paperwork for the upcoming year. Hayner, however, watched lackadaisically as his brown-haired ex girlfriend buried herself under piles of work. While Hayner and Olette did their usual thing, Pence and Roxas did theirs: eating the Java Juice sea salt ice cream from Hayner's freezer while playing Hayner's video games.

"We _have _to go to the beach this summer, guys!" Pence remarked as Olette took a break from her work.

"Yeah!" Hayner said, excitedly agreeing with Pence. "We could've went last year, but I didn't have a ride…"

Rolling his eyes, Roxas continued to play the video game. "I _offered _you a ride, loser!"

"I don't like making your mom our driver!" Hayner replied as Olette returned to her work. "Besides, Olette was busy…"

"I know! I'm really sorry about that, but you know that because I was Sophomore Vice, I had to-."

Just then, Olette's cell phone went off. Without looking to see who was calling, Olette groaned at the preset ringtone. Before even speaking, Olette started to roll her green eyes at the high-pitched voice on the other end of the line.

"Hello, this is Olette Maureen Anderson," the girl said, knowing who was already on the other end. "Yes, Belinda. Thank you for reminding me… however, I am completely aware of the fact that we are planning prom this year. No!"

Olette put her hand to her head as Roxas, Hayner and Pence stared at their girl friend. They knew there was absolutely nothing they could do to save Olette from the phone call at this point.

Pence threw his hands up in the air, knowing that Belinda was more than liking lecturing Olette about her duties as Junior Class President – duties of which Olette already knew.

"No…" Olette sighed as she sorted through her papers. "The only open date available for that venue is next year on May nineteenth. No! We most certainly cannot move the date for our prom to the fifth of May-. I don't _care _if that's when your birthday is!"

Hayner watched as Roxas nudged Pence; all three knew Olette was quickly losing her temper and her patience.

"_Yes_!" Olette said, rolling her eyes again. "I realize that I am the Junior Class President. I completely acknowledge that you are the Junior Class Secretary, but what does this have anything to do with that we are talking about right now-?"

Seeing Olette's figure tense up, Hayner immediately sat up and put his hands on her shoulders. He winced as he began massaging her; Olette had more knots in her shoulders than Hayner had expected.

"All right then. Goodbye," Olette said calmly before hanging up the phone. The teenaged girl slammed her index finger on the red button on the right side of the phone. After that, she violently flung it across Hayner's living room. "_Damn, bitch_!"

The boys let their jaws drops and their eyes widen; Olette Maureen Anderson, the over-achieving, well-mannered girl, _never _cursed.

"Sorry…" Olette moaned, burying her head into the nearest pillow. "Belinda is seriously stressing me out about prom venues because we're months behind… so the little princess wants to go on venue tours all next month."

"Just _try _not to kill her," Hayner teased, continuing to massage Olette. "You've got a lot of knots…"

"Blame ASB," Olette and Roxas laughed.

"Wait, _next _month?" Pence wondered. "What about our plans for the beach?"

_We weren't able to go_

It was the summer between their freshman and sophomore year when Hayner watched his three best friends happily pack their things for the beach. With a cheerful grin, Olette folded found beach towels: her bright yellow one, Hayner's deep red one, Roxas's light blue one and Pence's forest green one. While Olette did that, Pence looked through his freezer, grabing only one box of sea salt ice cream. Roxas ransacked through Pence's food pantry, trying to grab a hold of everything he thought would keep the gang's hunger – namely his own – satisfied.

Hayner scratched the back of his head with a sad look, pondering how he could to break the news to his best friends.

"What's the matter, Hayner?" Olette asked as she finished rolling up the towels and placing them at the bottom of the beach bag. "You should be smiling right about now!"

Pence nodded in agreement. "What she said! We're _finally _going to the beach, Hayner!"

"After like what? Four years of trying?" Roxas pondered, handing Olette the stack of junk food.

Hayner sighed; this was going to be a lot harder than he thought. "Yeah, uhm, about that guys… it's raining on the other side of town."

"But the weather man said it was clear skies until next week!" Roxas cried.

"Has the weather man ever been right? And plus, my cousin's boyfriend Zack just called to tell me that it's pouring over there."

"But it's the middle of June!" Pence remarked sadly.

"Ever heard of June gloom?" Hayner asked, watching his friends' happy mood diminish in seconds. "You know what, guys? Screw this shit…"

"What?" Olette questioned in outrage. "Hayner, we've planned this trip since middle school!"

"That's why we should screw this!" Hayner stated. "We're really not going to let the rain ruin our fun, right?"

"But… it's pouring…" Roxas reminded the leader of the gang. "And the water will be _freezing_!"

"We're not going to the beach," the blond boy said. "We're going to have our own little beach outing right here… right now!"

"In the middle of my living room?" Pence asked, pointing at the two couches beyond the kitchen counter. "That's kinda impossible, Hayner."

"So?" Hayner challenged. "If there's anyone who's mastered the impossible, it's gotta be us. Olette, I brought my laptop. Go into the black and red satchel that you picked out for me last year and log on my account. From there, go to the customizable screensavers. I want you to choose the most beach-like one available. After that, connect it to the television using the cables in the satchel's side pocket and presto! We've got the beach scenery. If you have questions, call me over."

Olette nodded quickly as she raced into Aarons's family room. She scanned the floor for Hayner's satchel. Once she found it, she pulled out Hayner's laptop and the wires that sloppily stuck out of the side pocket. She ran back into the living room and squeezed herself behind the big screen television set as Hayner gave out more commands.

"Hayner, how do you know that this is going to work?" Roxas pessimistically questioned. "Scene-?"

"Olette's great with real and fake scenery," Hayner assured. "I trust her; she decorated the stage in the gym for most of the rallies last year, remember? Roxas, you've got to have more me, dude."

"It's not that I don't," Roxas began.

"Then? _Trust me_," Hayner reassured. "Pence, do you still have the umbrella that Olette's parents gave you for your sixteenth birthday?"

"You mean the _parasol_?" Pence corrected. "Yeah, it's sitting somewhere in my closet."

Hayner nodded. "Bring that downstairs."

Pence shrugged and went up to his bedroom. Going through his closet, he searched the depths of it for the blue parasol that Olette's parents had given to him last year as a joke.

"Roxas, I want you to unfold the towels and arrange the food."

Roxas sighed and did as he was told. Though he was still very skeptical of the "living room beach" idea, Roxas knew better than to doubt one of Hayner's ideas, especially when the leader of the gang was already giving out commands and assigning tasks.

Hayner examined furniture arrangement in Pence's living room. Carefully and slowly, he pushed the coffee table in front of the sliding door as Olette turned on the television. Then, the spiky-haired blond pushed the couch nearest the fish tank as far back as he could. He happily surveyed the scene before him.

"It's not beach," he whispered to himself, watching his best friends smile in amusement at their homemade beach, "but it's enough for me."

_No matter how much we cried_

It was nearing the end of their senior year as Hayner, Roxas and Olette waited for Pence to arrive at the Usual Spot. Around this time of every year, the gang would plan out their summer together; however, this was the last school year they would share, so they had to make reasonable plans this time.

"We have to go to the beach this year," Roxas sighed, remembering the past few summer with his best friends.

"Ya'know," Hayner said, looking at Roxas, "one of us says that at least every summer, but something always manages to screw up our plans. Because of poor planning our first summer, we didn't really have a ride. Then, our second summer together _you _were grounded. The summer after that it starting raining-."

"Okay," Olette reminded, "that fake beach thing was pretty clever though."

"Yeah, but it was cheap, study and very last minute," Hayner whined. "Two years ago, _you _were busy with Belinda."

Pence had just walked into the Usual Spot as Olette rolled her eyes at Hayner.

"And I suppose that whole Belinda thing is _my _fault!" Olette said with a scowl. "Besides, we had _last year _to go-."

"I'm not blaming you," Hayner said in defense. "I'm just saying… something always comes up. Like last year, we weren't even talking to each other. So… I suggest this year we go… otherwise, we'll never get to it."

Pence looked at Hayner uncomfortably as the blond continued. "We won't have a ride problem because Olette can drive. None of us can possibly be grounded because… well, we have nothing to get in trouble for! Belinda isn't really a problem anymore. And we're the closest we have ever been… nothing – and I do mean _nothing _– is going to ruin our beach plans this year."

"Guys," Pence finally said. "I have some bad news…"

"What's up, Pence?" Roxas wondered.

Looking down at the ground beneath him, Pence replied, "I can't go to the beach…"

"WHAT?" the trio shouted.

"But you have to go!" Roxas whined, shaking Pence back and forth. "We've been planning this for more than four years!"

"We haven't even set a date yet!" Olette reasoned.

"Exactly! How can you possibly be busy on a date we haven't decided on?" Hayner groaned.

Pence laughed faintly, trying to lighten the mood. "Well, my dad thinks we've been going to the beach for the past couple of years and says that one trip to the beach is enough. And… we kinda have to fly to Destiny Islands the weekend after graduation; my mom wants to take a look at the Art Institute before I actually head up there… ya'know, assuming I get accepted."

"You still haven't heard back from them?" Olette wondered.

"I'm starting to think that I won't get accepted-."

"Don't say that," Hayner scolded. "Just wait it out. They'd be idiots to deny you."

"What about the weekend after that?" Roxas offered.

"That's the weekend of my sister's wedding," Hayner reminded with mixed emotions; while he was happy for his sister, he stressed out about his summer plans. "We're all a part of it… kinda. How about the weekend after that?"

"That's when _I _leave town for Destiny Islands for the baby shower at Sora's," Roxas replied. "Two weeks after that sound okay?"

Olette's shoulders dropped. "That's the week I move back to Radiant Garden with my mom..."

* * *

**Author's Note:** This chapter of the story was rewritten on _October 9, 2013_ and republished on _October 15__, 2013._

Thanks again for reading! I hope you liked it. If you have any suggestions, requests, comments or questions, feel free to let me know. Also, don't hesitate to browse through my other stories. Thank you again! Don't forget to review!

- May


	5. Chapter 5

_Remember when we'd laugh_

"You're not painting it right, Jonathan!" Belinda Drake shouted as she monitored the Homecoming Court poster. "JR, I'm serious! STOP NOW!"

"WHAT?" Roxas growled, shaking his head and looking at the girl. "What's wrong _this _time?"

Homecoming 2010 was only a few weeks away and the Sophomore Class of Twilight Town High School was getting ready for the rally by finishing their posters. As usual, however, they were behind due to lack of workers.

"You're not spreading the paint properly!" she protested as Hayner and Pence walked out of the ASB room with cups full of the dark violent paint Roxas was using. "You're putting way too much paint in one spot! It's like you're not even trying!"

Pence gripped the plastic cups of paint tightly as Olette walked past him with three unused paintbrushes. The brunette noticed Pence's death grip on the weak cup and paused to think for a moment. She then looked toward Hayner only to receive a head nudge in the direction toward Belinda and Roxas. Roxas saw in the center of the poster, taking in all the loud screams of the Sophomore Class Secretary and rolling his eyes when he could.

Naturally, Hayner would have rushed to Roxas's side with Olette and Pence, but Hayner knew ASB matters were ones that did not involve him. After all, he was only helping out his three best friends. If he were to cut in and make a remark toward Belinda, things would go nowhere faster.

"Calm down, Belinda," Roxas said smoothly as he walked toward his three best friends. "I know what I'm doing."

Once he stood before his friends, the blond-haired, blue-eyed grabbed a cup from Hayner and another cup from Pence. From Olette, he took all three paintbrushes, which he held in his mouth. Roxas unenthusiastically poured each cup of paint on the poster as he walked along the edges of the flimsy poster paper. When both cups were empty, Roxas kicked off his shoes and jumped on the unpainted part of the poster.

"Clearly," Belinda sneered, looking at Roxas and the trio, "you all look like you're lost. Those idiots are just standing there. You're wasting paint left and right. At this rate, I think our poster is going to look worse than the one the underclassmen did."

Olette's fist clenched up into a tight ball as she grit her teeth. Just then a hand wrapped around her wrist.

"Calm down," Hayner whispered. "He's got your back. I know him. He'll think of something."

With two paintbrushes at hand, Roxas stared up at the girl who continued to badger him about the contents of the poster. "Like you're any better!" he remarked. "At least Pence and Olette went to get supplies to actually _work_ on the poster. Geez! _Even Christian Hayner Richardson_ _is helping us out_! That's honestly more than you ever do…"

"Excuse you," Belinda defended, "I am the Sophomore Class Secretary. It is my job to inform the sophomores about workdays and such. I don't have to paint anything; I'm an officer."

"Are you serious?" Roxas laughed as he continued to paint. "You're joking, right? Please tell me that you're kidding!"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Belinda hissed.

"I'll tell you what's wrong," Roxas said, "but it's not with me. It's the situation at hand. Pence is Sophomore Class Publicist!

"That's different!" Belinda replied. "He's the artist officer."

"Well, I'm the Sophomore Class Treasurer and I'm painting-."

"My officer position ranks higher-."

"Olette's about to paint right now," Roxas replied, watching as his three friends made their way to the poster. "She's the _Vice President._ And honestly, if your job is to inform, why is everyone always out of the loop?"

"Apparently no one gets my texts," Belinda said, crossing her arms and hovering over the entire quartet.

"That's because you never send them," Olette commented.

"For class officers, you really don't know how to paint," sneered Belinda with a glare.

"_You don't know how I paint_!" Pence remarked, having enough of the entire situation.

With that, Belinda stormed into the ASB room.

"_Annoying ass idiots_! Don't even know how to freaking paint!"

Pence's eyes widened as the other three laughed. It was more expected of Roxas to explode on Belinda like that, considering he had been the one she was harassing. The raven-haired publicist was surprised with himself as he threw himself on the poster carelessly.

"I'm in for total hell tomorrow when she sees me in first period," Pence moaned, closing his eyes and rubbing his face on the poster. "Why did I snap like that? I'm gonna get so much hell for it…"

"If you don't get hell for it tonight from your mom!" Hayner remarked with a laugh. "Dude, you're lying in paint!"

"_You. Don't. Know. How. I. Paint_!" Pence said, rolling around in the paint. "That's what I'll tell her… yeah! That's what I'll tell her and maybe she'll let me off the hook…"

"Is that just gonna be your response for everything now?" Olette teased as the other two boys continued to laugh. "Or have you just lost your mind?"

_About the jokes we cracked_

Hayner walked into his living room with six different board games. "So guys," he said, arranging the games for his friends to see, "I found _Scrabble, The Game of Life, Monopoly, Clue, Battleship _and _Taboo_. If you don't wanna play a board game, we can always turn on the PS2 or the Wii-."

"No thank you!" Olette shouted at the thought of another video ame.

The boys looked at her and laughed.

"What's the matter, Olette?" Roxas poked fun. "Don't understand how to play a simple game like _Animal Crossing_?"

Embarrassed, Olette shoved Roxas off the couch. "Shut up!" she cried. "Just because I play video games in my free time doesn't necessarily mean I'm any good at them…"

"How the hell do you _not _understand how to play _Animal Crossing_?" Hayner questioned, sitting on the piano bench. "It's basically just a game of life."

"Yeah," Pence replied. "Think of it as the _Sims_ or something. For sure, it's a lot easier than _Tetris_."

"For your information," Olette said matter-of-factly, "I actually _like Tetris_. Can we just play _Life_ instead?"

"Why?" Roxas pressed on with a smile. "You wanna fail at that game, too?"

"Shut up!" Olette whined, hiding her face behind Hayner's favorite pillow.

The board game was set up on up of Hayner's coffee table. The green car with the a peg and the purple car with a pink peg sat on one of the game board's starting points while the red car and the blue car, both with blue pegs, sat at the "Career" option of the start.

"Eh," Hayner said with disgust, stopping on a tile, "do I seriously have to get married to someone? Can't I just go through the rest of my life alone forever?"

"What happens when you land on the kid spot or something?" Pence pointed out. "You can't really make babies by yourself."

Hayner groaned, "_I don't even want kids_!"

"Hayner!" Olette laughed. "You _have _to! It's just a game!"

"Screw that, I'm just gonna keep going like I never had to stop in the first place!" Hayner remarked, moving his game piece past the red marked space.

"Suit yourself," Roxas said. "My tur-."

"You lost your turn," Olette reminded. "And so did I. It's Pence's turn."

Pence's car stopped where Hayner's had previously been.

"Are you gonna live the single life too?" Olette asked Pence with a giggle.

"Nope," Pence replied, looking through the box for another game piece. "I'm getting married. I just need to find her."

"Pence," Roxas said, hold up a pink and blue peg, "I have the people pegs. Take your pick: boy or girl-?"

"Car!" Pence remarked, pulling out the orange car from the box.

"What the fuck?" Hayner exclaimed, hitting Pence's upper arm. "You can't marry a car!"

"Excuse you," Pence said seriously, "people say you can't marry someone of the same gender. But that doesn't stop anyone from trying. I mean, who are you to say whom I can or cannot marry. Love is love, dude."

"You've got a point…" Hayner replied, looking at Olette. He knew very well what she was thinking about the moment Pence mentioned gay marriage. "I wish you the best with… _your car… wife thing_."

"But it's a car…" Roxas murmured confusedly.

"Don't judge me!" Pence chuckled as he moved the game piece. "Woot! Road trip!"

"You've only been married a couple of minutes and already she wants you to go for a ride?" Hayner wondered, causing Roxas to attempt to hold in his laughter. "_Damn_."

_Then from laughter to silence_

"You're afraid of pigeons?" Pence laughed at Olette.

"Okay, that is _not_ funny!" Olette said. "And it's not just pigeons, okay? I'm afraid of birds in general!"

"Why?" Hayner wondered as he and his friends walked over to the Java Juice. "Is it because of how they walk?"

Olette looked at Hayner curiously. "What are you talking about?"

"You know," Roxas explained for Hayner, "like this."

With that, Hayner and Roxas began to demonstrate. Their heads bobbed back and forth as they strut past Olette and Pence.

"Guys, you look silly," Olette chuckled.

"I couldn't agree more," sneered a familiar voice.

Hayner instantly stepped in front of Olette, Roxas and Pence. "What do you want, Seifer? What are you even doing here?"

"You don't own Twilight Town, slacker," Seifer hissed as he and his gang glared at Hayner. "I'm free to roam the streets as I please. Now step aside."

Moments had gone by and the Seifer versus Hayner showdown was still happening. Seifer broke the silence and pushed Hayner up against the wall and walked away.

"I said, out of my way, loser!"

Hayner groaned as he tried to push himself back to his feet. Roxas, Pence and Olette rushed to Hayner's side quickly as their leader leaned against the tan-colored wall.

"Are you okay?" Pence worried. "That was totally uncalled for!"

"Seriously," Roxas said, glaring in the direction Seifer and his gang had gone, "he was the one that walked over to you. You weren't even in his way to begin with. Is your head okay?"

"When I get my hands on him-!"

Pence grabbed Olette's shirt collar, stopping the angry brunette from pummeling Seifer. "Down, girl!" he chortled.

"I'm not a dog!" Olette stated as Pence let her collar go.

Hayner coughed slightly as the rest of the gang laughed at Olette's comment. "I'm okay, you guys. Seifer's nothing I can't handle. That slam against the wall though… yeah, that really hurt. But I'll survive. Let's just go visit my sister at work and then head over to the Usual Spot."

"You're not even gonna scheme up some way to kick Seifer's ass?" Roxas asked, thinking of different ways they could get even. "Because let me tell you, I have a couple of ideas that you're gonna love-."

"It's okay," Hayner said with a smile as he got back to his feet. "He's not worth it."

"See that, boys?" Olette turned to Roxas and Pence. "Hayner's matured. Isn't that right, Best?"

"What?" Hayner wondered in bewilderment. "Olette, do you have me confused with someone else? Me… Christian Hayner Richardson? Mature? Are you kidding yourself?"

_Silence_.

Then, laughter.

_As we heard the train on the tracks_

"Come on, guys!" Olette said hastily as she adjusted the pins in her hair. "We're going to be late."

"We are not," Hayner assured as he and Roxas jumped aboard the train with Olette and Pence.

"I'm sorry," Olette apologized, sitting down across from Pence. "This is just something that I don't want to screw up… nor can I think to miss. Please, Hayner… do _not _screw this up for us."

Hayner widened his eyes and gave Olette a hurt expression. "What the hell makes you think that _I'm_ going to be the one to screw this up for us?" Hayner wondered as he watched Roxas fiddle with Pence's bowtie.

Olette, Pence and Roxas exchanged a knowing look with each other. Then, Olette brushed the imaginary dust off her white silk gown. "Because you _always_ manage to somehow mess things up when it comes to school dances."

"Name one time!" Hayner was outraged; how dare his best friend accuse him of such atrocities.

"Freshman year, Homecoming set up and Homecoming dance," Roxas reminded, remembering how impatient Hayner had been during set up. The blue-eyed blond then recalled what happened during the dance. "That was seriously fucked up."

"Let's not forget what happened during the Homecoming dance during our sophomore year," Olette hissed, remembering her and Hayner's shifts at the coatroom and the water stand.

"Oooh!" Pence laughed. "What about Homecoming dance and cleanup last year? That was _hilarious_!"

"Then there's Sadie Hawkins of freshman year," Roxas said with a chuckle.

"Sophomore year," Olette chirped with a smile, "Sadie Hawkins in general."

"Let's not forget the rest of the Sadie Hawkins' you went to after that year," Pence sighed. "And then there's Junior Prom…"

"Okay!" Hayner remarked. "That's not even fair! I asked for _one _time. Homecoming and Sadie's just aren't my things… besides, this is Senior Prom. Junior Prom was a whole different thing."

"You're not gonna screw things up for us?" Olette asked.

"This time," Hayner said with a smile, "nothing will go wrong."

"So… I'm assuming that you got the night off then, huh?" Roxas wondered. "I mean, I know you were still gonna be at Prom regardless, but if you're working at Prom instead of hanging with us… where's the fun in th-?"

"FUCK!" Hayner bellowed. "I'm supposed to be at home getting ready for work! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! _Fuck!_ I screwed up! My cousins are going to kill me! Someone get me off this train!"

* * *

**Author's Note: **This chapter of the story was rewritten on _October 10, 2013_ and republished on _October 15, 2013._

Thanks for reading, guys! It really means a lot to me. Please do not hesitate to read the other stories I have available. Reviews are very much appreciated. Thanks again for reading!

- May


	6. Chapter 6

_Remember research on the Wonders_

Hayner sat in front of the computer screen at the library as Olette and Pence sat behind him at a round study table; their English teacher had assigned the class a summer research project that required a group of two to four students to look into a topic of their choice.

"Do we really have to do this?" Hayner grumbled from his spot. "This is all so stupid! They're all urban legends. Who the hell came up with this topic?"

Pence hung his head down in defeat as Hayner continued to bash their research project.

Olette shook her head and placed her hand on top of Pence's. "I think this was a great idea for the summer assignment. Don't you think so, too, Pence?" Olette asked with a smile. "Besides, I think Hayner's missing the entire point of our topic."

"What are you talking about?" Hayner questioned, swiveling around to face Olette.

"The point isn't about how bogus the Wonders are," Olette replied. "We just have to prove if they are bogus or not."

Pence smiled at Olette's attempt to stick up for him. Just then, Roxas walked into the library with the blue folder Olette had given him last night.

"There you are," Hayner said. "Will you please tell these two that the Seven Wonders are just silly rumors?"

Scratching the back of his head, Roxas tossed the Olette's blue folder toward Hayner. "Actually, I side with them on this, Hayner," Roxas admitted. "They sound pretty legit based on the pamphlets Olette and Pence worked on last week."

"Not you too!" Hayner groaned as he looked through the English folder. "This is a bunch of crap."

_How they all ended up to be a lie_

"So…" Olette called from the bottom step. She prepared her clipboard to take note of Hayner's results while Pence prepared to write Roxas's. "How many steps are there, boys?"

Hayner counted the last of the steps as he crossed his arms over his chest furiously. "_Seventeen_," he answered. "I think…? I don't know anymore! That's like the millionth time I've counted and the number of steps hasn't changed!"

Roxas appeared quickly by Hayner's side. "Yeah, I got seventeen… for the fourteenth time in a row," the blond-haired, blue-eyed boy said, looking at his three best friends. "I'm starting to think this is a bunch of lies…"

Pence shrugged sheepishly, jotting down the number '17' onto the data sheet Olette designed specifically for their summer assignment. With a small smile, the raven-haired boy looked toward Hayner. "How mad would you be if I told you that I found out about this Wonder from Rai?"

Hayner's eyes widened. "You did what?" he sneered.

"I overheard Rai telling Seifer," Pence explained, watching as Hayner forced himself to calm down, "that no matter how many times he counted the steps… the number always changed."

Roxas laughed weakly as Olette rubbed her temples. "What can you say?" the blue-eyed teenager said. "Rai can't count… ya'know?"

Hayner shot a glare toward Roxas, clenching his fists tightly. "So… what? Are all the rest of these bogus Wonders lies too?" the spiky-haired blond asked angrily.

"Hayner," Olette scolded, "will you stop it? So what if this one is a lie? It's not like the rest of them are going to be! This is just something we can cross off our list."

_That day sure ended well_

"This was… fun!" Hayner laughed as he and his friends made their way to the train station.

"Oh, really now?" Olette wondered, having a taste of her sea salt ice cream. "What happened to your 'I'm going to kill you all for dragging me here!' attitude? What happened to that, huh, jerk!"

"Things could have been worse," Hayner replied with a sly smile. "I could have been attacked by a dog."

Roxas's eyes narrowed as he tossed his sea salt ice cream over his shoulder and tackled Hayner to the concrete ground.

"Dude," Pence cried, looking at the melting ice cream, "waste of perfectly good ice cream!"

The two blonds stopped wrestling to look at Pence.

"Why am I not surprised that _you_ would be the one to say that?" Hayner laughed, sparking laughter between his three best friends.

_Then we fell asleep that night_

Olette walked back to Hayner's living room with a smile. "My mom says that I can sleepover," she stated, "but I have to sleep in Aelita's room."

The long day consisted of their search for the truth behind the Seven Wonders. Though the day ended in a fail, it was not wasted. The quartet managed to finish one of their summer assignments, leaving the rest of their homework for the remainder of the summer.

"You act like we're gonna be sleeping, Olette!" Pence chuckled, opening the bag of chips on Hayner's coffee table. "It's the middle of June, girl; live a little."

Hayner looked at Olette as he finished laying out the futon. Sitting down on the soft futon, Hayner smiled at the brunette and patted the spot beside him. "In case you decide you want to sleep though, you've always got this little corner over here, Olette."

Olette shook her head as she crossed her arm over her chest. "Nope! No thank you! I am _not _sleeping in a room with you guys," she said.

"And why the hell not?" Roxas wondered, shoving a handful of chips into his mouth. "What's wrong with us?"

"Because the last time I did," the peeved girl went on, "you three drew on my face! No… I take that back actually. _Two _of you drew on my face while Pence _painted _it!"

* * *

**Author's Note: **This chapter of the story was rewritten on _October 18, 2013 _and was republished on _October 22, 2013_.

So… trains and ships, man. LOL ever since I watched the trailer for _Kingdom Hearts 3_, I cannot get over the fact that Sora, Donald and Goofy were riding that train. I think that's the thing I want to see the most. HAHA, okay, anyways, thank you for reading this chapter of the story. I really do appreciate it! Feel free to check out my other stories about the quartet. And don't forget to leave a review! Muchos gracias again, dearest readers~

- May


	7. Chapter 7

_Remember how we wished_

Next to those lazy afternoons, the best time of the day at Twilight Town was not daytime at all; it was the starriest nights. Every now and then, Pence, Hayner, Olette and Roxas would sneak up to the clock tower and stare up at the stars. On other occasions, the gang would head over to Sunset Hill with blankets to look up at the night sky.

"It's a falling star!" Olette pointed out as she wrapped herself in her fuzzy blanket.

Pence's brown eyes followed the direction in which the star was headed. The raven-haired boy smiled, turning his head toward Roxas and Hayner. The gang was sitting on top of Sunset Hill, attempting to clear their minds of their stressful realities.

"Still thinking about her?" Hayner wondered aloud.

Without responding, Roxas allowed a couple of tears to fall from his eyes. The blue-eyed blond swaddled himself into his blanket and sighed.

"Let it go, buddy," Pence tried. "She wasn't worth it…"

"But she played me!" Roxas groaned. "She _used _me after promising me that she's _always _be there for me."

Biting her lips, Olette put her hand on Roxas's shoulder. "Well, in that case, I feel like I need to remind you that you'll _always _have us, okay? And that's a promise I will fight to keep."

Roxas looked at Olette with a broken smile; he knew that when she made a promise, it was more than likely kept. She had promised him that she would teach him how to dance for Homecoming their freshman year. Now, three years later, he was co-captain of All Male.

"Okay?" Olette pressed. "That goes for all of you, boys. You will _always _have a friend to run to. We'll always have each other, okay?"

_Remember how we'd dream_

Since their freshman year, Hayner and his friends talked about how they would graduate from high school and go to college together. They even discussed the matter of living with each other after graduating from college. As amazing as the idea sounded, however, Hayner knew that the execution of the thought was impossible.

"Guys," Hayner said as Pence sketched out a blueprint of their dream home.

Olette, Pence and Roxas went on mapping out the rest of their lives together, not minding the distraught boy standing only a few feet away from them.

"Guys!" Hayner called once again.

"What's up, Hayner?" Roxas wondered, still laughing at Olette and Pence's earlier comments. "Why don't you come over here with us and plan?"

"Are you even sure that we're gonna live together?" Hayne asked with a serious tone. "Let alone go to the same college. I mean, c'mon, guys… get real."

Olette smiled. "Hayner, this is just our way of promising each other that – no matter what – we'll always find a way back to each other. We'll always find a way to reconnect, ya'know?"

Pence nodded. "C'mon and plan this out with us! It's a lot more fun than it sounds. So far, I've called dibs on the basement. Roxas has the attic. Olette wanted the master bedroom. Which room do you want?"

Hayner thought for a while before laughing. "I'll take whatever's available. I'm sure it's better than my current bedroom."

"Isn't that just the living room?" Roxas questioned, thinking back to all his visits to the Richardson residence.

Hayner smiled with a weak laugh. His eyes wandered past the entrance of the Usual Spot; he knew that the time they had left was more than just limited – it was _ticking_. The most time he spent with his best friends, the closer he was to having to say goodbye. He knew that eventually the 'forever and always' promise would blow up in their faces, because forever was too good to be true.

_That we could stay like this forever_

It was the first week of June as Hayner, Roxas, Pence and Olette sat around the small television screen in Hayner's living room. In only a couple of weeks, the gang was set to graduate from Twilight Town High School, but in the meantime, the quartet was spending their night boding and watching movies together.

"We can't be together forever," Hayner reminded himself, "so we've got to make the time we do have something to remember."

Roxas, being the only other person awake, looked at Hayner awkwardly; was this statement something Hayner wanted to keep to himself or something he wanted to share with Roxas? The blue-eyed blond scratched the back of his head, remembering the last time the leader of the gang said something along those lines. Roxas stared at the other blond, waiting for another 'just kidding' to escape Hayner's lips.

"What are you talking about this time?" Roxas questioned, betraying his thoughts.

Hayner's gaze snapped from the television to Roxas. "I thought you were asleep like these two!" the stunned boy said with an attempted laugh. "Ha, I was just kidding, dude. You actually believe that shi-?

"No," Roxas cut off with worry, "you were not just kidding. You couldn't have been."

"Well, I was," Hayner defended, switching his gaze to the girl curled up on the other couch. "I can't believe you'd fall for that crap."

Roxas sighed. "Look, I'm not as naïve as I was the first time you told me that. What's running through your mind right now?"

"Exactly what I told you…" Hayner finally admit. "We have a limited time together…"

Roxas watched as his crestfallen leader walked over to the brunette. Then he turned his attention to Pence, who fell asleep sprawled across Hayner's futon. Their seventh movie night had turned into another one of their sleepovers. Averting his gaze back to Hayner, Roxas sighed as his leader carefully draped a thin blanket over Olette.

"Ya'know, _she _wouldn't wanna hear that," Roxas reminded, "especially coming from her very best friend."

Hayner shut his eyes before kneeling beside Olette. "She's the one that has to hear it the most."

"Hayner, let's just…" Roxas looked at the television screen, trying to think. "Let's forget about that and live for today. I mean… you're right: eventually, we're going to have to leave each other. Especially since it's senior year… we're all off to do other things. _Better things_! Hayner, look at you, for example. You're actually graduating! And you heard Olette at the end of our sophomore year… we'll be together forever."

"If you say so…"

_In our Twilight Town theme_

Time was moving rapidly for the gang. Graduation was approaching quickly. In less than twenty-four hours, Nicholas Pence Aarons, Christian Hayner Richardson, Olette Maureen Anderson and Jonathan Roxas Way would be the _graduated_ class of 2013. After graduation, Pence would head off to tour the Art Institute of Destiny Islands at the end of the month. Roxas would start summer school at the city college across town, requiring him to rent out an apartment closer to the community college. Olette would be moving to Radiant Garden with her mother and brothers, to finish her education and to be closer to her mother's side of the family.

Then, there was Hayner – the boy who refused to let go of his friends and the connection they shared.

"Hayner…" Olette said softly as she approached the quiet teen.

Not far behind her, Roxas and Pence stood at the entrance of the Usual Spot. They watched silently as the only girl in their group tried to speak with their leader.

"Hayner, say something," she begged, tugging on his right sleeve gently. "Hayner, _please _talk to me."

Glaring at her, Hayner stood from the couch and ripped his arm away from the girl. "Why the hell should I?" he retorted immaturely. "You're all gonna leave Twilight Town sooner or later. Why not just get up and go now? I'll suffer less than I already have been that way!"

Roxas, Pence and Olette made their way to Hayner, who now stood in the center of the Usual Spot. Each of them stopping a few feet before their angered friend.

"Hey… you don't mean that," Roxas sighed, watching Olette attempt to put her hand on Hayner's shoulder.

"How do you know what I mean and what I don't?" Hayner shouted at the trio, shrugging away Olette.

"We're your best friends!" Pence remarked. "We know this is hard on you! But it is just as hard for us, okay?"

"Oh really?" Hayner yelled, making a beeline for Pence. "What the hell makes you say that, huh, Artsy Boy? Are your best friends leaving you? Are they!"

The trio remained silent and Hayner continued to scream at them.

"That's exactly what I thought!" he remarked. "I didn't fucking think so! Belinda was fucking right and so was Seifer…"

Olette clenched her fists. "How can you even say that? You're the one who's always telling us that we won't be together forever, Hayner! And this is the very last day we have together as a group of four-."

"You're the one who's always promising forever and fucking always!" Hayner bellowed.

"Hayner, please!" Olette cried. "Can you at least _try_ to make this time together worthwhile – _something to remember _– please?"

"There's only so much I would fucking do for you, Olette," Hayner sneered. "Pretending like I'm okay with you leaving me…. yeah, that isn't one of them."

Olette stood in shock as tears filled her eyes. She, Roxas, and Pence watched helplessly as the eighteen-year-old blond fled the scene hastily.

* * *

**Author's Note:** This chapter of the story was rewritten on _October 18, 2013_ and republished on _October 22, 2013_.

So like I'm sitting in Starbucks now. There are some pretty interesting people here. I just feel like someone's looking over my shoulder and reading everything I type. It's not entirely possible for someone to do that because I'm against a wall… I'm just super paranoid. Ha… Anyways, let me know what you think of the story! I'd really appreciate it. Also, thanks for reading. I'm really grateful that you took the time to read this. Thanks again, guys!

- May


	8. Chapter 8

_What happened to those days_

It was now the start of her freshman year in college and Olette sat in the middle of the library of the Radiant Garden community college. She flipped through the pages of her high school journal, cursing herself for not pushing herself harder in high school. Sighing to herself, she turned to a random page.

"_The Lucky Ones…_

_"We've been great friends from the start_

_And even 'til now we haven't grown apart_

_For an introverts like me, ya know, it's easy to see_

_That it's difficult for people to get close to me_

_"But you three made it… you were the lucky ones_

_You three stayed when everyone else chose to run_

_You three stayed with me through thick and thin_

_You're closer to me, now, than my own kin_

_"You three broke me of my antisocial shell_

_With your welcoming embrace that worked oh-so-well_

_As the years went on our friendship grew strong_

_It was always you three who made me feel like I belong_

_"Though each of us went through hardships and dramas_

_Whether it be with each other, our "lovers", or our mamas_

_We got each other through it, without weakening our bonds_

_No force could ever break us, not even magical wands_

_"Even though our group was never completed_

_When members were absent and the bond days depleted_

_As I look back at all the crap pulled each other through_

_I realize that it wasn't me who started this amazing crew_

_"It was __**you**__ who reached out and welcomed me in_

_It was __**you**__ who asked me to take this friendship for a spin_

_You three started this epic quartet_

_A foursome of friends I hope we'll never forget_

_"This foursome of ours saved me from years of isolation_

_Instead filling those years with feelings of elation_

_With uncertainty, I look to the future, while I sit_

_Yet, I know for a fact that you three are in it._

_"From back then with us meeting at the table to now, when I look at you three_

_I can easily see how much you three have undoubtedly impacted me_

_And if there's anything in this world I will never regret_

_It would be choosing my best friends… the lucky ones: Pence, Roxas, and Olette_

_"From Hayner to the Gang…"_ Olette read aloud, tears forming with every single stanza.

* * *

Pence stood in the right corner of the room, furthest from the door. His living space was filled with paintings and photographs, all of which were captured by himself. The raven-haired boy looked toward his unmade bed and then toward his roommate before continuing to paint.

"I'd fix your bed if I were you, buddy," he told Pence with a laugh. "Ya'know, the Captain won't be too pleased to see that."

Pence chuckled. "I don't think he'll mind too much. He's the Captain of the Royal Knights, not my mother. And besides, we're just in training. I think I'll step up my game when we make it as Royal Knights in the King's court."

His roommate nodded. "Point taken," he said. "Mate, I've got a question for you."

Pence turned from his work to look at his redheaded roommate. "What's up?" Pence asked, blending the colors of the painted sky.

"Well, I have two actually. First, all you do is paint and take pictures of sunsets and blue ice cream. Sometimes it's the most random thing!" the red-haired twenty-year-old said. "I have no problem with it, honestly… but you dislike using weapons more than the captain does. Why on earth did you sign yourself up for the knight training for the King? Why didn't you just attend an art school from your world?"

Pence went on painting, mentally preparing the answer to his roommate's question. "I actually applied to an art school in Destiny Islands, but as it turns out… I forgot one important part of the application process. Well, _I _didn't forget it; my parents didn't want me to pursue art so they didn't complete their part of the application."

"So why the King's military?"

"I knew this would be the one thing they approved of," Pence sighed, mixing two colors to create a nice tan color. "They willingly pay for my boarding here…"

"Oh… my other question: where do you get your inspiration?"

Pence put the finishing touches on the old, familiar clock tower. "My closest friends…"

* * *

"Why don't we call it a day? You've all been working really hard lately; you kids deserve to have a little time to yourselves. So, with that, class dismissed," the English professor told Roxas's class.

"Awesome," Roxas whispered, "I can probably head over to the library to work on the ten page essay."

Once out of the classroom, Roxas noticed a little boy holding a familiar looking popsicle stick. He smiled as he approached the child and the man accompanying him.

"Jonathan Roxas Way, is that you?" the man cried.

"In the flesh," Roxas replied with a smile, shaking the man's hand. "Who else would it be?"

"Well, if I'm being honest," the man said, "I thought you were Sora for a second."

Roxas rolled his eyes playfully. "I get that a lot! But anyways, the last time I saw you was during my sophomore year. What brings you back to Twilight Town, Zack!"

Zack laughed. "I actually never left. I was just so busy working that you never really saw me at Richardson family parties."

"What are you doing _here _though? I thought you transferred schools to be with Aerith," Roxas asked.

"I'm actually here looking for his parents," Zack said, taking the small child into his arms. "They said they were gonna get him more sea salt ice cream, but I haven't seen them for thirty minutes. Say 'hello' to Uncle JR, kiddo!"

The three-year-old gasped. The remnants of his sea salt ice cream were smeared all over his face. "That's my name too!" he cried. "Hi!

Roxas looked at the blond-haired little boy with a smile. The last time he had seen the boy was two years ago at a family party. "Hey there, little man. Do you remember me?"

The child nodded as Zack carried him. He thrust his half eaten popsicle stick toward Roxas. "You bought me this last time!" the boy exclaimed. "You and Uncle Pence and Uncle Hayner and Auntie Olette!"

Roxas sighed sadly to himself. "Yup! … that sounds like the fifteen-year-olds we used to be…"

Zack watched as Roxas's expression dropped slightly. He put down his girlfriend's nephew and said, "You okay, pal?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Question: are they selling that kind of ice cream here?" Roxas wondered.

The boy nodded as Zack replied, "Yeah, why?"

"Auntie Aelita bought it for me!" cried the child.

Roxas chuckled. "Sounds like Aelita. Hey, JR… do you wanna go with me to get some more?"

* * *

"Christian Hayner Richardson, can you please try to understand?" Aelita scolded her younger brother. "Mom and Dad just wanted me to check on you, okay?"

Hayner rolled his eyes as his sister went on about the trials that the entire family was going through. Aelita was more than three worlds away on her honeymoon while Hayner was stuck alone in the house. Mr. and Mrs. Richardson had gone to another world to settle some family problems.

"They care about you, little brother," Aelita sighed. "They really do. They just couldn't take you with them this time… I know they wanted to, but they just couldn't… not with the given circumstances."

"It they truly cared, they wouldn't have left," Hayner hissed into his cell phone, staring at a picture Pence had taken in the seventh grade. His piano fingers gently glided across the message Olette had etched into the frame years ago: "_Friendships fade… but this __**family **__is PHORever_."

Sighing once more, Aelita replied, "Something tells me that we're not talking about Mom and Dad's impromptu trip to Grandma's…"

_With my three best friends_…

Roxas smiled, looking at Olette. "I'm Roxas and this is my best friend, Pence," the twelve-year-old blond introduced himself politely to the green-eyed girl.

"I'm Olette!" she responded with a bright smile. "Are you sure you don't mind if I sit here with you guys?"

The black-haired boy with the black headband smiled and shook his had. "Not at all; there's always room for one more… but this table only seats four, so maybe after you… there really is only room for one more."

Olette laughed. Her first day of middle school was turning out to be more perfect that she thought it would be. Though her schedule consisted of her old school rival, Nicolette Naminé Dénouement, Olette's day was great, but she knew in her heart that there was something more she could do to make her years at school better.

Watching from where he sat, Hayner could not help but feel a little guilty for making Olette leave when all she really needed was a place to sit. He could see her smiling and talking to the other boys, yet he also noticed that she had not taken her seat with them.

She was being awkward, Hayner thought to himself as he continued to stare at the brown-haired girl.

Olette felt a pair of eyes burning into the back of her skull as she side-glanced at Hayner from where she stood. She could tell that her classmate was staring at her, but she was not going to make a scene about it – like she usually did.

Turning to Pence and Roxas once again, Olette smiled, not taking her eyes off of the boy in the corner of the room. "Do you mind if my friend sits with us, too?"

Pence shook his head. "I repeat, there's room for one more!" he laughed as Olette's grin grew.

Gently placing her backpack on the floor, Olette skipped over to Hayner's table with a cheery grin.

Hayner groaned as he noticed the overly perky girl headed in his direction. He did not know what it was about her, but it was extremely hard to get rid of her.

"What do you want, Holy Girl?" Hayner sneered.

Olette giggled. "Would you like to sit with me?"

A few moments passed before the words actually sunk into Hayner's mind. Was the religious girl he met a year before actually asking him to sit with her? What the heck was this girl thinking?

"Okay, what?" Hayner questioned in confusion. "I have been nothing but terrible to you since we met during catechism classes and you're asking me to sit with you?"

Olette blinked and then nodded with a big grin. "Of course! But it's not just me… it's also the two boys over there."

Hayner looked at the two boys Olette mentioned He noticed the boy with the red jersey and the blue jeans and the other boy with the black, high-collared jacket. Sighing, he gave into Olette's request.

"Sure…" he replied, standing up to sling his backpack over his right shoulder. "But this in no way means that I'm gonna start _anything _with you. I'm not promising you any type of friendship!"

Olette nodded as she helped Hayner carried his books across the cafeteria. "I'm in no way asking you to promise me that."

Hayner looked slightly to the girl he had spent too long avoiding. "Good. Where exactly are we sitting again?"

Olette lead the way silently. "Hi, guys!" Olette greeted as she took the seat beside Pence.

"Hey, Olette!" Pence replied.

"We were starting to think that you wouldn't come back," Roxas stated as he held up Olette's backpack. "But then we remembered you left this."

"Boys, this is Christian Hayner. He's a _classmate_ of mine," Olette introduced, avoiding the word 'friend' as best she could.

Hayner shrugged as he slowly sat down beside Roxas. "Sup…"

"Christian-?"

Hayner quickly stopped Roxas from saying anymore. "My friends call me Hayner…"

"Hayner, I'm Roxas and this is Pence…"

"Pleasure to meet you two."

_Our lazy afternoons_

The summer was rolling along smoothly as the gang of outcasts sat around Roxas's game room doing absolutely nothing in particular.

"What're we gonna do today?" Pence wondered.

Hayner shrugged as he slumped down in his seat. "Let's just sit here and chill, yeah?"

"We could do some homework," Olette suggested, unzipping her backpack. "Considering that we do have-."

"I know we just met and all, Olette, no offense," Hayner began, "but who gives a damn? Summer is supposed to be about chilling out and relaxing. It's our break away from school, remember?"

"Yeah," Roxas soothed. "Let's be lazy if only for a moment and let us take in the start of this wonderful friendship."

Olette giggled as Pence and Hayner rolled their eyes.

"Well, that wasn't cheesy at all," the thirteen-year-old, raven-haired boy said, adjusting his headband.

_Where life would never end_

"How's the night going for you, Olette?" Hayner asked as he slipped an arm behind the brunette dressed in the blue ball gown.

As her best friend swayed her back and forth to the music, Olette smiled. She knew that dancing had never been Hayner's forte, especially at big formal parties; however, the two of them were now dancing in the center of the dance floor in front of all their friends and family.

"We're running behind schedule by half and hour," she revealed, locking eyes with Hayner, "but that's perfectly fine with me. I'm enjoying myself."

"And that's all that matters," Hayner whispered, bringing her closer to him.

It was Olette's eighteenth birthday and they were dancing together, which was the only thing Olette had ever really wanted since middle school. The two continued to dance beneath the well-lit dance floor as the rest of the partygoers kept their eyes on the dancing pair.

"I only want this birthday to be perfect for you," Hayner admitted. "Especially since you deserve this party more than anyone I know. I totally get that we used to fight a lot, but I want you to know now that… it never meant I didn't care about you. I really do care… about you, I mean…"

Olette smiled brightly. "I care about you too…"

The two swayed past the other two boys as they exchanged these words.

"We care too!" Roxas and Pence roared with laughter, knowing that everyone else at the party would not understand a thing.

* * *

**Author's Note**: This chapter of the story was rewritten on _October 22, 2013_ and republished on _October 22, 2013._

So get this. Now that I'm in college I still don't drive and I live with my uncle and aunt. They live a couple of minutes away from the nearest bus stop. That bus takes me directly to school… this morning, my uncle noticed I was running late to school and he was running late to work. He dropped me off near the bus stop and the bus came instantly. So when I get to school I get an email from my professor saying that class is cancelled. WEH! Now I'm here in the Student Union and it's foggy as hell outside. I'm debating if I should just walk home from the bus stop or go to Starbucks to kill sometime.

LOL, sorry to bore you with my life… anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter of the story. I really appreciate you reading it! And I strongly urge you to check out my other stories and leave a review!

I almost forgot! The poem _"_The Lucky Ones" is not mine; it belongs to my best friend. I just used it for the purpose of this chapter of the story._  
_

- May


	9. Chapter 9

_Sitting on the clock tower_

The clock tower was a nice place to watch the sunset when Sunset Hill was crowded with lovesick couples and annoying tourists. It was also a nice place to think about a long summer afternoon of Struggle and sea salt ice cream. But most of all, the clock tower was one of the places the gang could call their own.

"Ice cream!" Roxas and Pence chanted together as Hayner and Olette took their seats beside them.

"Yup!" Olette said with a smile.

Hayner tossed Pence and Roxas their ice creams as Olette casually began to eat her blue ice cream.

The brunette cast her gaze at the setting sun as it dipped behind the tan-colored buildings of Twilight Town's shopping district. She then looked at the ground as he ice cream drippings fell, realization hitting her instantly.

"Isn't this dangerous?" Olette wondered curiously, suspiciously eying the ground below.

"I'm sure if one of us were to fall," Pence said, "it would be Roxas."

"Hey!" Roxas growled. "That's not fair. I'm sure it would be Accident Olette! Damn… are we sure this is safe, guys?"

Rolling his eyes, Hayner looked at his friends with a smirk. "Are you all being serious right now? We've been doing this since the _seventh _grade, which was five years ago! You are _now _just worrying about our fucking safety!"

_Dreaming of what's to come_

"Senior year is just around the corner," Ms. Schultz went on. "Do any of you have a clue about what you would like to do with the rest of your lives? Ms. Anderson, you usually have something interesting to say about your future. What's your game play, sweetie?"

Olette lifted her head from her arms. With a faint smile, she replied, "I'm planning to become a psychologist."

"Aah, how fascinating! I'm positive you can do it! Mr. Way, what about you?" Ms. Schultz asked the blond in the middle aisle.

"Me?" Roxas wondered.

"Is there any other Mr. Way in this classroom?" Belinda sneered from the front of the room.

"Uhm," Roxas began, "I plan to go into the medical field… like my mom."

"Ms. Drake?"

Belinda smiled and replied smugly, "Unlike my classmates, I want to go to the Radiant Garden Private Institute and double major in business and fine arts. I'll be the first person in this town who'll have something to their name!"

Rolling their eyes, Pence, Hayner, Olette and Roxas exchanged disgusted looks.

"Mr. Samuels?"

"I want to graduate," Seifer replied. "Then if I'm accepted into the college I wanna go to… I'll take up biology or something."

"Mr. Aarons, you?"

"The Royal Military," Pence stated.

"Mr. Richardson…" Ms. Schultz paused, "this should be very interesting."

Hayner paused for a moment. "I plan to become a priest."

The whole class immediately turned to face Hayner; all were in shock.

Olette turned around in her seat and whispered, "Hayner! What the heck are you saying? You're _kidding,_ right?"

"Dude," Roxas cut in quietly, "that is _not _what you want to do!"

Pence nodded. "Hayner, that's not your dream for the future! That is the furthest thing from what you want to do. We talked about this last week together in the Usual Spot!"

Hayner smirked, leaning back in his chair. "And those weren't any of _your _dreams either, where they? We all know those were your parents' dreams for you. Olette, you said last week that psychology was sure thing, but becoming a psychologist? No. You said you wanted to double major… or even triple major, but your parents don't support you desires of triple majoring in music and creative writing."

Olette looked down as Hayner brought up what she had mentioned only a week ago. She knew he was right.

"And Roxas, you and the medical field? Please! You weren't fooling _anyone_!"

"How do you know that I don't want to try what my mom does-?"

"Because you're always telling me about how you don't want to be like your mom," Hayner retorted. "You're always talking about how you want to be like your father and join the King's military force. It was either that or you become the movie director or business tycoon like you dreamt of… you've never mentioned medicine before."

Roxas hung his head in defeat; he, too, knew the spiky-haired blond was right.

"And Pence," Hayner continued, "the King's Royal Military? Are you fucking serious? You hate weapons and fighting. What was that bullshit you spouted out right then?"

Pence remained silent.

"You want to be a painter or a photographer! Not a knight at the Disney Castle!" Hayner whispered. "I know you guys… those were your parents' dreams for you. So don't you start lecturing me about my dreams and whatnot, because I know those weren't anywhere near yours…"

_Spending our Lazy Afternoons_

"I made the dance team, guys…" Roxas said with a faint smile.

"OHMAHGOSH!" Olette squealed excitedly. "This is so great!"

"Aelita's gonna be so proud of you, Roxas!" Hayner laughed. "You know my sister and dancing."

Pence noticed the apprehension in Roxas's light blue eyes. "What's wrong, Roxas?" We seem so much happier than you do…"

"Well," Roxas sighed sadly, "this means that our summers are gonna be ruined now."

Hayner punched Roxas's arm lightly. "No… not at all they won't."

"What about summer practice? All Male practices last for hours!"

Pence rolled his eyes. "And that matters because?"

"I'll be sore after practice!"

Shaking her head, Olette replied, "We won't mind. Get back to us when you're not sore; we'll make time for you if you make time for us, mmk?"

"Nothing is ever going to come between us, all right?" Hayner stated. "Right, Pence?"

* * *

"Pence!" Olette called out as Hayner chased after him.

Pence had cried for hours at a time since his breakup with his second girlfriend. It was not until Hayner and Olette had shown up when he gathered the energy to run home.

"What happened?" Roxas wondered as he entered the Usual Spot.

"Nicolette Dénouement happened," Olette complained.

"Naminé?" Roxas wondered.

"That witch used him!" Olette shouted.

* * *

"She uses everyone!" Hayner bellowed at Roxas. "I don't approve of her!"

"Too bad I wasn't asking for your approval, Christian Hayner! I was just trying to keeping you in the loop," Roxas fought. "And besides, you're just jealous because Olette doesn't let you do anything past hand holding."

Olette stood her ground as she held Hayner back. "Roxas, Erieann Penbrooke is just as bad, if not _worse_ that Naminé and Rachel. The only difference is that Naminé is naïve and gets bored easily… Rachel doesn't use people like _that… _Erieann, however, knows exactly what she wants and she's more than determined to get it!"

"I know what I'm doing!" Roxas shouted.

"We're just looking out for you, Roxas!" Pence remarked.

* * *

"We always will too!" Olette cooed as she shoved a spoonful of soup into Hayner's mouth.

"Who's a good boy!" Roxas and Pence teased as they pet Hayner's hot forehead.

"I'm sick!" Hayner coughed. "Not a dog!"

The gang burst out laughing at Hayner's comment.

"What happens to all of this… ya'know… when we're older?" Pence wondered as the quartet sat on the bus together. "Will we all still be this close?"

_The tune we would hum_

"I doubt we can be together forever, guys, but isn't that what growing up's all about? What's important isn't how often we see each other, but how often we think about each other… I made a promise to you guys that we'd be friends forever," Hayner said. "And a promise is a promise."

* * *

**Author's Note:** This chapter of the story was rewritten on _October 22, 2013_ and republished on _October 22, 2013_.

I hope you all enjoyed the rewritten version of this series. It means a lot to me that you guys would read through the entire story. GAH! Please leave a review and feel free to check out the other stories that I've written. Thanks again for reading!

- May


	10. The Poem

**Those Lazy Afternoons**

a poem by Primo

_Reminiscing on old times_

_Remember how we'd play_

_Or lie in the grass_

_And dream all day_

_Remember those warm summers_

_Where we were all together_

_No cares in the world_

_Just us four in the warm weather_

_Remember just talking everyday_

_At our own "Usual Spot"_

_How we'd eat ice cream_

_To cool down from the hot_

_Remember trying to go to the beach_

_No matter how hard we tried_

_We weren't able to go_

_No matter how much we cried_

_Remember when we'd laugh_

_About the jokes we cracked_

_Then from laughter to silence_

_As we heard the train on the tracks_

_Remember research on the Wonders_

_How they all ended up to be a lie_

_That day sure ended well_

_Then we fell asleep that night_

_Remember how we wished_

_Remember how we'd dream_

_That we could stay like this forever_

_In our Twilight Town theme_

_What happened to those days_

_With my three best friends_

_Our lazy afternoons_

_Where life would never end_

_Sitting on the clock tower_

_Dreaming of what's to come_

_Spending our Lazy Afternoons_

_That tune we would hum_

* * *

**Author's Note:** This poem, as it states under its title, was not written by myself. It was written by one of my closest friends. I added this poem as a chapter of the story because when I presented this story to a friend, she could not keep track of the poem within the story… so she suggested that I add another chapter that included just the poem. So here it is.

Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it!

- May


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